Castle Of Glass
by rasberrypumpkin27
Summary: AU- Mai is new to the neighborhood and she hears many rumors about her neighbors. Curiosity gets the better of Mai as she gets to better know her new neighbors, despite the rumors.
1. Chapter 1

**~Warning AU- takes place in Maine in the U.S (why in Maine? Honestly I don't know.)**

It had been only a couple of days since Mai and her stepparents moved into the neighborhood and already, she had heard so many crazy stories about her front door neighbors; the neighbors that lived in the old creepy-looking Victorian house shrouded by a mess of trees.

According to an old lady who lived close to her street, said that the family that lived across from Mai, were cannibals. Mai thought the idea was bit ridiculous. On the other hand, she heard from a group of small children that nobody lived in the house and that it was actually inhibited by ghosts. The idea was also ridiculous. Mai didn't like gossip and so far she did not like the town by the amount of gossip that would go around. All the town seemed to be preoccupied with her neighbors. Another theory about them was that they were vampires and that they would only come out at night. Mai continued pondering about the neighbors, as she stared at the house.

"Mai, you are going to be late for school," Ayako scolded from the front porch, which made Mai break out of her daze.

"Yes," she replied as she started to make her way towards school.

"Are you sure you don't want me to drop you off at school?" Ayako called out.

"I'm fine, besides, it's only a twenty-minute walk," Mai yelled back.

"Okay. Good luck then!"

"Thanks," Mai smiled. As she turned to make her way towards school, she missed a boy with black hair and deep blue eyes peaking through the shades as he watched her leave.

* * *

Mai didn't really know what to think about school. Her classes were fine and most of her teachers were nice. Her classmates were a whole different story. The guys were very friendly, but the girls weren't, in fact they seemed to hate her, and she had no idea why. The only girl she befriended that day was Masako Hara. Mai ended up having three classes with her and because of this, they started to talk. Mai also befriended a guy named Yasuhara, or Yasu for short. Yasu was one the only guys she met that did not want to date her, which was one of the reasons why she instantly liked him.

* * *

By the end of the day, Mai was a bit exhausted. She ended up walking home with Masako, who ended up inviting herself over to her house. _"Maybe this is the reason why a lot of girls don't like her," Mai wondered._

Throughout the walk, Masako was talking about how the girls in the school were so annoying. Mai just listened, not making any comment because it seemed that Masako wanted to rant more than anything.

It was when they approached Mai's street, the street that only contained three houses, as it was more of a circle street, that Masako stopped walking.

"Is something wrong Masako?" Mai asked, curious on why her newfound friend stopped walking.

"You live on this street?" Masako asked, dumbfounded.

"Yeah, is there a problem?" Mai asked as she continued walking towards her house, while Masako eventually followed. Masako didn't respond. "Well this is it," Mai said, motioning towards the pale huge yellow house.

"I can't believe you live across from _them_ ," Masako said.

"I don't understand? What have _you_ heard about them?"

"I've heard that a married couple have adopted a whole bunch of kids and that they basically use them as servants and force them to have relationships with one another," she said with a look of disgust on her face.

"That's gross and probably not true. Where do people come up with these lies?" Mai said disgusted.

"Who knows," she shrugged.

"Well now I kind of want to know more about the family," Mai admitted as Masako's face lighted up with excitement.

"I dare you to go inside."

"What? There is no way I'm trespassing!" Mai exclaimed.

"Do it! I mean, who knows if anyone actually lives there, no one has ever seen these people."

"What? Then why are all these people saying such horrible things about them?"

"Who knows and honestly who really cares. Just do it Mai."

"No."

"I'll give every boy your number then," Masako grinned as she waved her phone.

"What, how did you get my number?" Mai asked.

"You gave Yasu and me your number earlier, remember?" Masako reminded her.

 _"Nice going Mai."_

"Fine," Mai sighed.

Both Masako and Mai headed towards the backdoor. They don't see anything out of the ordinary as they took a quick glance at the backyard. They finally reached the backdoor and Mai slowly turned the knob, to find that the door was unlocked. Masako smiled at Mai and in return, Mai glared at her. Afterwards, Mai stepped inside, checking if anyone was home, but she did not see or hear anyone.

"Okay, I went inside. I'm done now," Mai whispered.

"That's nothing, just go in a little further," Masako whispered.

"No," Mai said as she tried to exit the house but Masako blocked her.

"I'll do it," Masako threatened, as she waved her phone in the air.

"Fine," Mai huffed, as she walked deeper into the house.

Mai had no idea where she was going, but she noticed that the house was decorated beautifully and was maintained well for a family that was supposedly dead, at least according to one rumor. Mai walked past the kitchen and a living room only to stop at a small library. The door was open and she noticed that no one was in there, so she decided to take a sneak peek since she had a weakness for libraries.

Mai browsed through the series of books and was pleasantly surprised when she saw a copy of _Pride and Prejudice_. She took it out and began to admire it when someone grabbed her arm.

"What are you—" a tall man started.

Frightened, Mai didn't really think, just acted. She ended up stomping on the tall man's foot with her own, which took the man by surprise. It gave her the opportunity to twist the man's arm, since he was still holding her own. The man quickly withdrew his arm in pain and Mai quickly dropped the book, ready to flea the scene when a boy around her age with black hair and dark blue eyes appeared in front of the door.

"And who are you? Why did you barge in my home and assault my guardian?" asked the boy with the deep blue eyes.

"Uh..."

 _"If looks could kill, I would have been dead already. Great Mai, how do you think they will react when you tell them that someone dared you to barge in on their home," she thought._

* * *

 **~Honestly i don't know why I started this when I have several other stories to update, *curses***

 **~I blame it on writers block and my recent dream that I had.**

 **~Well if you guys liked, let me know** **what you thought.**


	2. Chapter 2

**~Thanks for the reviews!**

 **~Oliver E. C. Davis- yeah looking back on it I see the resemblance...I guess me waiting to read the sequel was probably what caused me to have that dream (*sighs* I still have yet to buy the sequel). To your other questions...the next chapters, you'll get your answer.**

()= texting

* * *

"I asked you a question. Are you not capable of forming a sentence or what?" he asked.

"Of course I'm capable of forming a complete sentence," Mai angrily replied, not liking his attitude. She would have thought that he was really cute if it weren't for the fact that he had insulted her.

"I should have you arrested for trespassing and assaulting my guardian," he continued.

"I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to—"

"Really? You didn't mean to somehow end up in my home?"

"Well, you see…" Mai trailed off as she noticed that the tall man was examining his arm.

"Seems like you broke my guardian's arm," he observed.

"I'm really sorry…"

"Save it, " he said to Mai and then turned towards the tall man. "Lin, I need to take you to the hospital, but…"

"Gene," he answered.

"Well, Madoka should be here soon."

"We still can't leave him by himself," the man Lin added.

"I really should call the cops on you…"

"Please don't," Mai begged.

"Fine," he sighed exasperated, and Mai sighed in relief. "But on one condition," he added.

"What is it?"

* * *

"Are you sure about this Noll?" Lin asked.

"We don't have much of a choice," he scowled as he backed out of the driveway. "Let's just hope that Madoka gets there soon and that we don't take so long, I mean it's not like he's going to wake up from the coma he's been in for so many years."

* * *

Mai was left alone in the house to take care of the boy's twin brother. Mai cursed at her predicament, somehow she always found herself in trouble. The other twin brother told her that he would not call the police on her if she stayed in the house to take care of his brother while he was gone. Mai protested at first but the boy told her that his brother has been in a coma for many years and it was very unlikely that he would wake up during her care. It relieved Mai that she wouldn't have to do anything besides just sit in the room, but it also made her sad to know that the boy was in a coma. The only other thing that made her uncomfortable was the fact that there was a camera recording. The boy had set up two cameras as reassurance that she wouldn't leave when they left. If he discovered that she left, then he would call the police.

At first, Mai paced around the room looking at the other twin. He was hooked up to several machines and it made Mai sad. She wondered how long he had been in a coma. If it weren't for her pacing and the beeps of the machines, the room would have been silent. Tired of pacing around, Mai spotted an armchair and decided to sit on. As she sat down, her phone buzzed.

(Did you get out?)- Masako

(No, I'm practically being held hostage. By the way, where are you?)-Mai

(….I'm home…)-Masako

(What?! You just left me?!)-Mai

(Sorry, I kind of freaked out when I saw a tall man walking about the house)-Masako

 _"_ Some friend," Mai muttered.

Mai stopped texting Masako afterwards, but her phone still buzzed.

(Mai, where are you?)-Ayako

(Sorry, I meant to text or call you but I went over to a friend's house)-Mai

(Next time, warn me, but I'm glad you already made friends. I'm picking up Houshou from the airport, so I'll be gone for a while. There is food in the fridge if you come home early, love you) –Ayako

(Will do. Love you too)-Mai

(Mai?)-Masako

(Yes, I'm still alive. I'll text you later, that is, if I'm still alive or if they let me have my phone while I'm in jail)-Mai

Masako didn't text back afterwards. Mai checked her phone; it read 4:00. Mai sighed, only ten minutes had past since they had left.

"I'm sorry I'm such terrible company, but in my defense I just woke up," a voice croaked.

Startled, Mai jumped out of her seat. "W-what? Y-you a-aren't s-suppose t-to be a-awake."

"Well that's so kind of you," he joked, before he started coughing.

"I didn't mean it that way," she blurted. Mai was at a loss at what to do, she didn't expect for the twin to wake up. She had to call…

 _"Damn, he didn't give me his number nor did he tell me his name," she thought._

Mai looked around the room; hoping that for some reason, they kept their numbers in a notepad or something and tried to ignore the fact that the other twin was just staring at her.

Next to the twin's bedside, she found a piece of paper with several numbers with their names across from them. She saw the names Oliver, Lin, Martin, Luella, and Madoka. She figured she would call Lin, since she didn't know the name of the other twin.

Mai quickly dialed the number on her phone and on the second ring, Lin answered.

"Hello?"

"Lin? Um the twin woke up, I don't know what to do…"

* * *

Oliver heard Lin swear, which meant something bad must have happened because the usual stoic man hardly lost his composure. The only other thing that he heard his guardian say was that someone was on the way and then he hung up.

"Noll, call the private doctor and tell her to head to the house and you should also head straight to the house. It appears that Gene has woken up. I'll have Madoka pick me up instead and we'll head over there as soon as we can."

Oliver was stunned, but he did what Lin told him to do.

* * *

Mai was a wreck; she kept pacing back and forth, hoping that someone was on his or her way.

"So who exactly are you? Are you my brother's girlfriend or something? Where's Noll and why exactly are you taking care of me?" he asked, voice still raspy.

"That's your brother's name? No, I'm not your brother's girlfriend; I barely met him today. As much as I would like to say that I'm taking care of you willingly, I'm not. I sort of got blackmailed into taking care of you," Mai admitted.

"Blackmailed? How so?"

"I'd rather not say."

"Please humor me, I just woke up."

"Fine," she sighed. "I just moved across the street a couple of days ago and I heard several rumors about this place, which are quite nasty if I might say. Anyways, today was my first day at school and I made a new friend who walked home with me today. Apparently everyone talks about your family because she told me another rumor about you guys. Well in short, she dared me to go inside your house and well, I caught by your guardian Lin. I guess I broke his arm trying to escape, but I wasn't able to because your brother blocked my exit. Since I broke your guardian's arm, your brother and Lin had to go to the hospital but couldn't leave you alone so your brother blackmailed me into taking care of you. None of us expected for you to wake up," Mai finished.

"Wow, you broke Lin's arm? I would have loved to have seen that."

Mai shook her head. "So what's your name?"

"Eugene Davis, but call me Gene. Oh and by the way my brother's name is Oliver."

As soon as Gene finished speaking, Oliver and a doctor burst through the door. Oliver didn't even glance at Mai as her told her to leave. Mai wanted to tell him to at least say please, but didn't because she didn't want to risk the chance of him changing his mind of calling the police, so she quietly left the house.

As she left the house, Mai started to text Masako.

(I'm alive for now….)-Mai

( :) I'm glad….so what happened?)-Masako

(I'll tell you tomorrow)-Mai.

Masako didn't reply back and so Mai quickly crossed the street and went inside the house.

 _"Maybe it would be best to steer clear away from that family," Mai thought._

Whether it was luck or misfortune, Mai would not be able to avoid the Davis family.

* * *

 **~Thoughts?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Aqua Lily:** **The story is called Castle of Glass because I was inspired by the song Castle of Glass by Linkin Park. Well the castle more refers to the individuals inside a household because they all have their own problems to deal with. Glass is obviously something really fragile and can easily break and well this story relates how easily people can be broken, whether it is by rumors, heartbreak..etc. So each person has their own story, their own problems and it makes them fragile in their own way. Not sure if i explained it well...if you need further clarification just leave a review or PM me.**

* * *

It had been over two hours since she left that house. Mai tried to relax by reading another chapter of The Wind Up Bird, however, she found that she couldn't get past two pages without her mind straying. She wondered if Gene was okay and if Oliver would keep his word that he would not call the cops since she kept her promise. It didn't seem like Oliver was the kind of person that went back on their word; yet, Mai didn't know him at all, so she couldn't assume anything.

If it weren't for the loud voices arguing outside, Mai would have continued to be lost in her thoughts.

Mai got up from her place on the couch as she went to open the door for her adopted parents.

As soon as Mai opened the door, her adopted father engulfed her in a hug.

"Ow! Why did you hit me old woman!" Monk cried out as he let go of Mai.

"Mai was turning blue because of you," she said as she wacked Monk again with her purse. "Now hurry up and get these suitcases inside and I'm not old," she yelled as she hit Monk again with her purse. Monk simply absorbed the hit while faintly smiling at Mai, as she giggled at their antics. For a fleeting moment, she forgot all about Oliver and the incident, but a movement of curtains made her think about Oliver once more.

* * *

"So those are the new neighbors, " Madoka said as she closed the curtains and made her way to the library.

Lin finished speaking on phone when Madoka entered. "I can't seem to reach Martin or Luella. This is the fifth time I've called them," Lin said.

"Just wait an hour and if they don't call back, then call them again," she said as she draped her arms around her husband's shoulders as he leaned into her. If it weren't for the fact that he was sitting on the couches, she wouldn't have been able to put her arms around him so easily due to him being so tall. "So that tiny little girl broke your arm," Madoka chuckled. Madoka didn't have to see his face to know that he didn't appreciate her comment.

"It's not like I really could have done anything, even though she broke in," Lin argued.

"I was just making an observation," she said.

* * *

Oliver really couldn't believe that his brother was awake once more. To say he was happy would be an understatement. In all honesty, he didn't really ever expect for his brother to ever wake up. It was really tough the first year, but he didn't really want to think about it. All he knew was that his heart completely shattered when the doctor told his adopted parents and him that it was most likely that Gene would never wake up from the coma he was in after he was hit by a car. Gene and Oliver were only ten at the time and it had affected Oliver a great deal.

Oliver was never much of an outgoing person. Gene was always the more sociable of the twins and when Gene went into a coma, Oliver became even less sociable. For instance, instead of attending a regular public school, his parents hired a private teacher for him because he wished to be homeschooled instead of attending a public or private school.

"Did you stay here the entire night?" Gene asked, effectively gaining Oliver's attention.

Oliver nodded.

"You know you didn't have to."

"I know."

Oliver didn't have to say it, but Gene knew that his brother wanted to watch over him because he was worried that him waking up might have been a dream.

"So has Lin finally alerted mother and father?"

"Yes, but due to some business matters they cannot avoid, they won't be home for a couple more days, but they said they will call you later. They were really upset that they couldn't fly over here the moment you woke up but running the business has been paying all the medical bills so don't blame them."

"No I understand. Anyways, what time is it?"

"Around 7:00."

"Shouldn't you be getting ready for school?"

"I don't usually start until 9:00."

"Have the schools changed their start time that drastically or have I been in a coma for far too long?" asked Gene, who was really confused on why Oliver wasn't getting ready for school.

"You have been in a coma for far too long, but no, the usual start time is 7:30 or 8 but those are for people who aren't home schooled, though the time class begins usually depends on the teacher."

"Homeschooled? _You_ are homeschooled?"

"Yes."

"Why would you want to be homeschooled? You are missing out on meeting new people and making friends and…"

"I'm not missing anything. Being homeschooled isn't a bad thing. In fact some research suggests that homeschooling might actually be better for students."

"I'm not necessarily saying its bad, but…"

"I was never much of a sociable person Gene; I still hardly am, so it doesn't make much of a difference."

* * *

 _He grabbed her chin and forced her to look up at him. She couldn't deny that he was attractive as she gazed into his deep blue eyes. His hair slightly covering his face and his pale skin glistening as the moonlight hit his face. He tilted her head slightly and his fingers caressed her throat, making her blush and her breath hitched. He leaned forward and kissed her throat and she was embarrassed when she let out a slight moan. His lips kept hovering over her throat as he whispered, "Mai."_

 _Suddenly, he let his fangs show and he quickly bit her._

"Mai? Are you still with us? Miss Taniyama?" Mr. Moore asked, slightly irritated. That was when Mai awoke from her dream. "It seems that you don't find my lesson all that interesting," Mr. Moore added after Mai finally woke up. The girls giggled at her embarrassment while the boys though she looked cute with her red cheeks.

"I'm really sorry," Mai apologized.

"Well I'd be more willing to accept the apology if you could answer the following question," he said.

"I'll try my best," Mai said.

As far as Mai could tell, what Mr. Moore wrote on the white board was another language. She had no idea what he had written on the wall and that's when Mai knew that Calculus would become her least favorite class of the day.

"So Miss Taniyama, could you please direct me on how to solve this problem?"

"I'm sorry Mr. Moore, I can't."

"Now if you were paying attention, you would have known that not even the rest of the class could have figured it out because I haven't even taught most of the rules of limits of functions as x approaches a constant."

"Sorry," Mai mumbled.

"Now as I was saying…" continued Mr. Moore, while Mai once again lost interest and stopped paying attention. She really shouldn't have watched Twilight with Bous-san and Ayako last night, not that they willingly put that movie on themselves. Since there was nothing on TV that night, Twilight was the only decent option. If it were up to Mai, she would have seen Pride and Prejudice but unfortunately she had watched that movie too many times that the disc couldn't even be read anymore.

 _"I'm surprised I haven't heard anything about the Davis family being a bunch of vampires_ " _Mai thought._

Lost in her thoughts again, Mai didn't realize that class was over. It was until Masako loomed over her desk that Mai realized that class had ended.

"So what happened," Masako asked, which prompted Mai to begin recalling the events that took place the day before as she walked to English class with Masako. Along the way, Yasu met up with them and so she also told him what happened.

* * *

It was late in the evening when Oliver entered Gene's room once again.

"So how'd the phone call go?" Oliver asked.

"As you can probably imagine. Mother was crying in relief and happiness that I had finally woken up and father was happy as well but was less emotional then mother, I doubt that father cried. They said that they would be home in a couple of days and they gave me the okay to begin my therapy sessions so I can gradually get out of this bed. Oh and they told me to tell you that they loved and missed you as well."

Oliver nodded as he stood at the edge of Gene's bed but he quickly went over to his brother's window as he heard some loud arguments outside his house. Oliver sighed as he saw the brown-haired girl arguing with a girl and boy with black hair. He thought he would be able to ignore her despite being neighbors, but it seemed like he wouldn't be able to.


	4. Chapter 4

***I really hope I don't offend any Twilight fans, not that I bashed on Twilight too much (not really sure if I actually did). Personally I don't like it but everyone is entailed to their own opinion. I apologize beforehand if I offend anyone, it isn't my attention, it just serves as a plot purpose.**

 ***K (guest or whoever you are): in response to** **Y the fuck u a rite the story fah n nah continue rite dem fah**

 **I would totally understand if you critique me for my spelling and grammar mistakes or the story in general; but to swear at me for not updating? Seriously? I am continuing this story and my other stories as well, however I am not able to write all the time or I experience writers block. I really don't appreciate you swearing at me! Nor do I appreciate you telling me that I'm not writing, I mean it's not like you actually know if I'm writing or not.**

 ***To all my other reviewers, thank you! I don't have a problem with "update soon please" so thank you to the other guests who don't insult me. I just hope everyone understands that sometimes I may not update that fast.**

* * *

"Maybe I will call the police on her after her all," muttered Oliver.

"Seriously? She kept her side of the deal and you are just going to disregard it?"

"I'm not going to call the police because she broke into the house, I'm going to call to complain about the noise."

Gene merely shook his head. "First of all, you're exaggerating, they aren't that loud and second of all, if it really bothers you, then you should go and talk to her about it."

"I have no interest in talking to her again," Oliver replied.

"Well I do. I didn't get to tell her thanks for patiently waiting for you to come back…"

"Gene, I blackmailed her into it," Oliver interrupted.

"Even so, it was rather rude that you just told her to leave…"

"Gene, she _broke into_ our house."

"Yes I understand Noll, just tell her to come over for a bit."

"No."

"I mean I would go and tell her myself but I can't leave the bed yet, doctor's orders," Gene grinned and Oliver sighed, which meant that Oliver had lost the battle.

Gene watched his brother leave and his mind wondered back to his brother's revelation of choosing to be homeschooled. According to the doctor, he spent the last seven years in a coma. How things have changed since he was ten and it absolutely frightened him, though he didn't want to admit it or show it. If he were to be honest with himself, Gene was relieved that the brown-haired girl was with him instead of Noll, his parents, Lin or Madoka. He was relieved because as soon as he woke up, he knew that he had been out for a while; how he knew, he couldn't really say, but he knew that as soon as he saw Noll or anyone else that he knew, reality would sink in, the reality that he missed so much time. Besides the fact that she was a stranger, it helped that she was freaking out because it distracted him since he tried to keep her from panicking even more.

Yes, Gene wanted to thank the brown-haired girl for temporarily distracting him from his own worries, but he wouldn't thank her for that; instead he would thank her for staying with him until Noll came back. He continued waiting for his brother to show up and he hoped that he would soon be able to get out of bed because it was torturing him that he couldn't really do anything because he was confined to the bed.

Soon enough, Gene heard several footsteps climbing the stairs as he waited patiently for his brother to return.

"Happy?" Oliver said as he entered Gene's room with Mai, Masako, and Yasu.

"Actually yes I am Noll. So who are the extra guests?"

"Well this is Masako," Mai said as she gestured towards the girl with black hair and pale skin. "And this is Yasuhara," she said as she then gestured towards the guy with black hair and glasses. "And this is Gene," she told her friends.

"And she's Mai," added Oliver, which made Mai roll her eyes.

"You act like you haven't just found out my name," Mai scoffed.

"Well I apologize for not getting to know the person that broke into my house," Oliver sarcastically replied.

Before Mai could respond, Gene decided to stop their little argument before it got out of hand. "I don't know how my brother got you to come here, but I'm glad he was able to convince you. Anyways, I just wanted thank you for staying with me that day."

"No need to thank me Gene. Like I already told you I did it because I was blackmailed…" The way her words came out dawned on Mai and so she started stuttering. "T-that's not h-how I m-meant it… I mean…" As Mai fumbled with her words, her cheeks turned red; making Oliver think she looked a little bit cute. On the other hand, Gene, Yasu and Masako were simply amused.

"It's okay Mai, I understand," Gene smiled. After Gene finished talking, the room suddenly grew quite since everything was said and done. Oliver looked at Gene to say something since he was the one that asked him to bring Mai, while Masako and Yasu looked at Mai to say something since she insisted on them coming with her.

It was Yasu who broke the silence, " _The Masque of the Red Death_ _or_ _The Tell-Tale Heart_?"

"What?" Gene asked.

"We were arguing about which short story by Edgar Allen Poe is the best," Masako chimed in.

"So?"Yasu asked.

"The Masque of the Red Death," Oliver replied.

"Darn," muttered Masako and Yasu.

Instead of joining the conversation Gene just looked at his lap and played with his thumbs, which went unnoticed by everyone except Mai. On the other hand, Oliver seemed intrigued by the direction of the conversation so he asked why they were arguing about which story was better. Yasu said it was because their homework for Advanced English was to read _The Masque of the Red Death_ and _The Tell-Tale Heart_ and since they finished reading the short stories before the end of school, they talked about them on their way to Mai's house, which then started their whole argument. Masako then added that Yasu and her liked _The Tell-Tale Heart_ better than _The Masque of the Red Death_ , while Mai picked the exact opposite, which surprised Oliver.

"I must say, I didn't think you would actually like Poe," Oliver said, addressing Mai. "Well then again it was assigned for class so…"

"For your information, I deeply admire Poe's works. I haven't read all of his short stories or poems, but I have read a lot." Mai said, completely glaring at Oliver. "What do you think I read?" she asked irritated. She had more or less meant it to be a rhetoric question but Oliver answered her anyways.

"Something like Twilight," he said with amusement laced in his voice.

"I have read it, but for your information I really dislike the Twilight series… they are just…"

"Hey!" Masako interjected.

"No offense Masako," Mai apologized to her and she continued, "I read it just because everyone was talking about it and I'm willing to give every book a chance, but that series wasn't for me. At least not like The Harry Potter or the Divergent series. I don't want to say anything more because I'm pretty sure I'll make Masako angry."

"Yeah, you will," Masako added. "But at least you have the decency not to just completely insult the series. I mean other people don't even care that sometimes others enjoy those books. Like you said, sometimes certain books don't appeal to certain people."

Yasu and Mai nodded at Masako's little speech while Oliver silently agreed as well. Yasu then asked Masako why she liked the Twilight series and while he and Oliver listened to her; Mai silently walked closer to Gene. "You know, I have a copy of all the Twilight books and a book with all of Poe's works if you want to read it? I can bring them to you tomorrow?" Mai whispered to Gene.

Gene nodded, not wanting to verbally answer her because he couldn't trust that he could speak at the moment without breaking down. He was really touched by Mai's kindness. It seemed she understood that he was completely lost in their discussion and maybe understood that he was having a hard time adjusting to the fact that he had missed so much. Even if he was reading more into the situation, he still appreciated her effort to want to include him in their discussion, though he would partake in the discussion a little late. At the moment, he just wanted to be alone, he didn't know if he could deal with all his emotions in front of them.

Mai seemed to notice that Gene was feeling a bit overwhelmed and so she told Oliver and Gene that they would be leaving. Oliver said he would walk them out and Gene could only muster a goodbye, but silently he thanked Mai.

 **~Not much again(well except for me ranting). Anyways, this is another short chapter. I was currently adding more to this chapter and I wasn't going to post until another day or two, at least utill I added more but then I saw this review (the one from above, if you read the note) that really made me mad and I had to respond to it and therefore this short chapter.**

 **~I apologize for all my ranting.**


	5. Chapter 5

***Snavej: Maybe I should take your suggestion. No you don't sound mean at all. To answer your question, yes he should have a mentality of a ten- year old but…I know it will be cliché and all but he'll be one of those rare patients that has some awareness of what has been going on. Not saying he won't struggle but he won't necessary act like a ten year old either. I will not explain it in this chapter; hopefully I can explain it either in the next one or the one after.**

 ***Oliver E.C Davis: I really appreciated your review! Thanks! About the neglecting, yes and no. Compassion between the brothers, yes. Your questions will eventually be answered as the story progresses because I don't want to give away too much.**

 ***Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, follows and all that!**

* * *

It was late in the evening when they started arguing. Mai sighed as she finished her math homework. She could feel a headache coming as she laid her head on her desk, hoping for once that they would not argue. Mai knew Monk was leaving again, she could tell. Surprisingly, they weren't as loud as they usually were, which made Mai worry. It didn't matter before. If she was upstairs or downstairs, she could always hear them. Their fighting was always loud; on certain occasions doors would be slammed. Loud. It was always loud, yet, this time Mai could barely hear a word they were saying.

Slowly, Mai got up from her seat, opened her door and quietly walked through the hall and peeked from the top of the stairs to see Monk and Ayako quietly arguing by the door. Being a shorter distance from them, Mai could finally hear more of their argument.

"You can't at least let me say goodbye to her? You can't prohibit me from saying goodbye to my own daughter." Monk said, clearly angry.

"Honestly why do you even come home anymore? We always move because of you. Don't you think Mai and I are tired of it? Don't you think you could consider your daughters feelings for once?" Ayako said.

"This has nothing to do with this and so what? Your not blameless either!"

"I didn't say…"

"I'm not the only one that is not around either."

"What?"

"You are always at the hospital as well, don't deny it. I don't even know why you yelling at me for leaving because you do the same thing. When I do come back from tour or gigs or whatever, you still work long shifts in the hospital."

Mai didn't think she could handle her parents arguing anymore so she quietly went to her room once again. She gently closed her door and walked over to her closet and changed into some pajama shorts and a pajama shirt that said this is my tea shirt. After she had finished changing, Mai turned off the lights and climbed into bed and attempted to go to sleep but she knew she wasn't going to sleep for a good while. Instead of sleeping, Mai attempted to hear if her parents were still arguing but instead of hearing voices she heard footsteps. She heard footsteps coming closer to her room so she quickly pulled the covers closer to her body and pretended to be asleep.

The door creaked slightly as a ray of light swept the room.

"Mai, I know you aren't sleeping," Monk said as he walked over to Mai's bed.

She sighed and began to sit up on the bed as he sat next to her and as soon as he did he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her. "I assume you heard everything," he said as he released his hold on her, just keeping one arm around her shoulder.

"Not everything," Mai answered. "But I assume your leaving again?"

"Yeah, we have another gig, I'm sorry."

"No it's okay, I understand. How long will you be gone for?"

"For a week at the most."

"Just be safe," Mai said as she went to hug Monk.

"You too and no matter what, just know that I love you okay?"

Mai nodded and whispered an 'I love you too' and she let go of him so he could leave. After he closed the door, he could hear Monk yell out a 'I still love you, you old woman' and she could hear Ayako's muffled response of 'And I sill love you, you idiot'.

After Monk left, it was all silence. Mai got out of bed and went straight to her parent's room. As soon as she opened the door, Mai saw Ayako lying on the bed sleeping and although she looked peaceful, she could tell that she had cried. She couldn't really tell that Ayako was crying back when she spied on her parent's conversation because Ayako's back faced her. How Mai envied how fast her parents could sleep, though she didn't envy their loud snores. Mai often had to make herself some Chamomile tea in order to sleep and today was no exception.

It didn't take too long to make the Chamomile tea. After she poured herself a cup she figured she would drink it outside because it was such a lovely night to just relax under the stars.

The night was cool and crisp and the full moon was shining brightly across the sky. Only the sound of crickets could be heard on the street.

Mai realized that she really liked her street. Since there were only three houses on her street, it was relatively quite, not that she hated anything loud but she had her fair share of living in really nosy streets and it was simply refreshing to live in a quite street for once.

* * *

After talking for quite a while, Gene soon fell asleep in middle of the conversation with his brother. Afterwards, Oliver called the nurse so she could begin to watch over him as he left for the library. Oliver figured he would go downstairs to the library because he wasn't tired enough to sleep.

However, instead of staying in the library to read his book, he figured he would read outside like he would sometimes do when the weather was nice.

As soon as Oliver opened his door, he had half a mind to close it again after he saw that Mai was sitting on the doorsteps of her porch, drinking something. Just as he decided to simply close the door, Mai noticed him and waved at him. He simply ignored her and proceeded to close the door but he stopped when she spoke up.

"Look, I'm sorry for breaking into your house, but are you just going to ignore me for the rest of your life?" she called out.

Oliver didn't respond and once again he proceeded to close the door again but Mai's voice stopped him again.

"Seriously?" she yelled.

Slightly irritated, he stepped out onto the porch and closed the door behind him. Carrying his book with him, he made his way across the street to Mai's house.

As soon as he reached her he said," There are people who are trying to sleep."

"Oops, I sort of forgot," she replied.

"Seriously?" he said as he raised an eyebrow at her reply.

"Hey don't copy me," she pouted.

"Please refrain from disturbing people at night, some people have to sleep."

"Yes, yes," Mai replied, eyeing the book on Oliver's hand instead of looking at him.

As Oliver was about to turn around, Mai asked him a question. "What book is that?"

He was going to simply ignore her and walk away but he noticed a twinkle in her eyes as she eyed the book. "Frankenstein," he murmured.

"Frankenstein! I love that book," Mai smiled.

Oliver couldn't help but want to smile as well, though he didn't, but he had to admit that Mai seemed like one of those people that could easily get you to smile even though you didn't want to.

Instead of smiling, he replied, "It's my favorite book." He didn't mean to tell her that Frankenstein was his favorite book, but it just slipped out before he knew it.

"Though it's not my favorite book, I have to admit it is one of the books that I really enjoyed reading. So why do you like the book so much?" Mai asked.

Oliver simply looked at his book and since Mai didn't know if he was going to answer, she said she would bring out a cup tea for him, giving him some time to decide if he wanted to answer her question or leave if he chose to.

After giving Oliver some time to think or leave, Mai appeared on the porch with two cups of tea and a small spoon. She noticed that Oliver had decided to stay as she found him sitting of the doorsteps. She smiled to herself as she went to sit next to him. She carefully gave Oliver his cup and as he accepted the cup he asked if she had poised the tea. Mai simply laughed and instead of answering him, she dipped the spoon in his cup and drank some of the tea that was on the spoon and then she did the same with her cup. He merely raised a brow and she smiled,

"If you die, I guess I'll die as well. We'll be Romeo and Juliet," she laughed.

Though Oliver didn't smile, he found her statement slightly perplexing. He knew she meant it as a joke but it was slightly disturbing.

"Have you read Romeo and Juliet?" Oliver could not help but ask.

"Yes I have. Anyways, I was just kidding about the dying part…and the Romeo and Juliet part, we are to young to die... well I hope we don't die too soon. Sorry if the joke disturbed you, I don't really know why I said it. Well I guess it's because sometimes I tend to ramble and...Well at least you wont die from my tea," Mai rambled. But as Oliver was about to take his first sip, Mai's hand stopped him from drinking. "Wait a minute, you aren't allergic to anything or say Chamomile tea?"

"No," he replied as he rose the cup once again to his lips.

"Okay good, because I don't want people thinking that I'm going around breaking into peoples house's and murdering people unintentionally." Mai noted that Oliver never answered her question about why he liked Frankenstein but she wasn't going to comment on it at the moment.

As Oliver drank his cup of tea, he could not help but feel a little bit glad that he decided to stay and have tea with Mai.

Though they didn't say another word to each other all night, they were perfectly all right just sitting next to each other and drinking their tea as they looked up at the sky.

* * *

 **~There will be a lot of books mentioned in this story, just letting everyone know.**

 **~Since every characters personality will be slightly different (not too much I hope). I'm having trouble deciding on Mai's favorite book, if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. Actually if anyone has any suggestions on favorite books for any of the other characters, please feel free to suggest titles since I'm making every character have a favorite book.**

 **~Anyways, please review.**


	6. Chapter 6

***So late….sorry.**

 ***Thanks for the reviews guys...and all the suggestions. Kind of made a list of all the books y'll suggested so I can read them.**

 *** Rhazhiel: Thanks! I have a favorite which is The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien followed by Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Apparently I've been told that I read a lot of sci-fi/fantasy (but I read any type of books really, even textbooks like you). I guess you can say I have a soft spot for dystopias too but my biggest soft spot is for banned books because I really hate the fact that people want to stop other people from reading something that they don't like. If they don't like it then they don't have to read it but don't take away the opportunity from others to enjoy those books. I have not read any of the books that you have mentioned, though I will add those to my need-to-read-list. I do like Regency era novels though I haven't read too many. Aside from The Things They Carried, Fahrenheit 451, Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice, and Jane Eyre or almost anything by Poe, I'd recommend The Picture of Dorian Gray, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, The Book Thief, Flowers for Algernon, The Memory Keeper's daughter, Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird, The shining, A child called it...gosh and so many more but those are the ones that stick out to me the most at the moment. I would add Animal Farm and 1984 but no one I know so far has liked it other than me...too political for their taste. I just finished Kafka on the Shore and it was good and now I'm reading The ****Wind-up Bird chronicle (which is good so far) and attempting to start the Tale Of Genji. I'm just all over the place when it comes to books, I've got way more books that I like but I'm blanking at the moment. Anyways, thank you for your kind words!**

* * *

Mai Taniyama was not a morning person. Even if she slept the hours that were recommended, she was always still sleepy in the mornings. It often took six alarms to wake her up and on certain occasions an angry Ayako or Monk (when he has home).

Her usual schedule consisted of finally getting out of bed on her sixth alarm, brushing her teeth, taking a shower, changing her clothes, fixing her hair and eating breakfast and today was no exception. After Mai said goodbye to Ayako, who was just finishing her breakfast, she quickly left the house, just in time to see a lady entering her neighbors house. Mai didn't think too much about it since she had to rush to school because she was late enough as it was.

* * *

Gene sighed, he had been awake for an hour already and it was really frustrating staying in bed. The nurse attending him had already administered his medication, gave him food and recorded his condition as well as informing his doctor about his progress so she sat next to him in one of the armchairs close to his bed, reading a book. From the angle he was lying down, he couldn't read the title of the book. Too preoccupied with his own thoughts, Gene failed to notice the new intruder in his room.

"Oh Gene! I'm so sorry that I wasn't here when you woke up and that it took me this long to get here," Luella cried, tears spilling as she quickly rushed to Gene's side.

"Mother….I thought you weren't coming for another few days," Gene replied as he grabbed the remote to enable the bed to help him sit up.

"Pleasure to meet you Mrs. Davis," the nurse said as she closed her book and stood up to extend her hand as a greeting.

"Just Luella will be fine," she said as she accepted the nurse's greeting. "Now, I hope you don't mind but could you please leave the room because I need to talk to my son in private," Luella addressed the nurse as she wiped the tears from her face. "Oh I forgot to mention that Lin is in the library, he is expecting you so he could go over the rules around here when you work. I know you already went over some details when you got hired but you'll be going into a little more depth today. I know that some of the details might sound redundant after hearing them but after the last nurse we hired, we don't want to take another chance."

"Of course, I'll head down there right away. I have already made sure that Gene is all taken care of so if you need anything just press the red button on the control for the bed and I'll be here right away," the nurse smiled.

"Of course," Luella smiled back as the nurse took her leave.

Once the nurse left, Gene questioned his mother once again, "I thought you weren't coming back until a couple more days?"

Luella sighed before beginning, "I wasn't suppose to but I couldn't wait that long. The reason why I'm here is that your father will be taking over my work while the group finishes doing their research. Since your father is taking over my work it means that he won't be able come in the next couple of days like we planned unless they finish their research early but I highly doubt that will happen." Gene just nodded in understanding. "So the doctor said you should be starting therapy in a couple of days."

"Yes, I can't wait. I'm tired of staying in this bed all day," Gene sighed.

"I can imagine. You could never stay still for too long," Luella smiled fondly as she remembered how hard it was for Gene to stay put, he always loved running around and having adventures.

"The doctor mentioned that I have to take psychotherapy…I can see why I need physical therapy but I don't know why I need psychotherapy. He said that it was amazing how well my brain and I have adjusted to the present right now, well at least speech wise. He said it might have helped that you guys talked to me while I was in coma. If my speech is fine, I don't see why I need psychotherapy."

"It isn't only about your speech Gene, it is about dealing with your feelings, thoughts and about how you handle life. You missed several years and even though you have always been a smart boy for your age, you _will_ need to seek counseling for how to adjust to the real world once again."

Gene was pretty sure that he would have no trouble adjusting to the world again but he didn't know the struggles that he would later face.

* * *

Mai was upset. Very upset. She was grumbling some nonsense on her way home but she stopped when much to her surprise, found Oliver Davis sitting on her front steps of her home. He was very much engrossed in the book he was reading but sensing her arrival most likely because he heard her grumbling; he closed his book and looked at her.

"Is there something that you need?" Mai asked as she came to stand over Oliver.

"Gene sent me to ask you if he could borrow the Twilight series as well as the collection of short stories by Edgar Allen Poe," he said as stood up.

"Of course, just give me a minute and I'll bring them right down. Just a minute later Mai returned with a pile of books. "I didn't know if you would have preferred them in a bag or not but…" Mai said as she started handing the books to Oliver.

"It is fine like the this," he said as he accepted the books.

"Alright then, I guess I'll be seeing you around," Mai said as she was about to enter her house once again.

"I assume another discussion about Poe?"

"What?" she turned around.

"You were mumbling some nonsense when you got here."

"Oh, that. It wasn't some nonsense. Some girl in my English class dared to insult _Pride and Prejudice_ and _Jane Eyre._ She said the females were really boring. How is Elizabeth Bennet boring? "

And so started Mai's long rant about how her classmate's comments about two of her favorite reads had upset her all the while Oliver just listened, not once stopping an angry Mai from complaining.

* * *

 **~I know this chapter was so blah...but this has been literally the second time I have been able to use my laptop in about a couple of weeks. Hopefully I might start updating once a week again after** **next week.**

 **~I still haven't figured out Mai's favorite book, hopefully by the next update I will.**


	7. Chapter 7

"Seems like you are all idiots." Mai had continued complaining to Oliver for the past twenty minutes, not once interrupting but as entertaining as it was to watch her defend her books, Oliver wanted to go see if Gene was fine.

"What?"

"I said you are all idiots," and with that, Oliver left.

"Jerk," she called out.

* * *

As soon as Oliver dropped the books with Gene and made sure he was all right, he went downstairs to talk with Lin and his mother while the nurse stayed in the room with him.

After spending most of the day with his mother and Oliver, they left to settle some things. Luckily, Oliver brought the books that he asked to get from Mai. His brother scoffed at his choice of books but he paid him no attention to him because he wanted judge the book for himself. Gene was so excited to read the book because he couldn't remember the last time he had picked up a book since his accident.

As far as he remembered, Oliver and him had always been advanced readers, well pretty much advanced in almost every subject. However, when Gene turned to the first chapter, he found that he couldn't read a single word. It was as if the words were in a different language but that was impossible because was able to read the title and so it didn't make sense that he couldn't read a single word in the first chapter. His mind started racing, it just didn't make sense. He _could_ read but why couldn't he read a single word on the page. He was smart; it wasn't him being arrogant, it was the truth and his teachers would always say it. Oliver and him even got to skip third grade because they were more suited to be in the fourth grade. He read the _Hobbit_ in the fourth grade and had no problem understanding it and keeping up with all the characters, yet he could not read a single word in _Twilight_.

He closed the book a bit too forcibly, attempting to calm himself before he did anything rash because he was feeling a bit overwhelmed. He found that his heart was pounding erratically, that he started to shake and that e started having trouble breathing and so he didn't notice that the nurse had gotten up, due to the sound of the beeping monitor.

"Gene I need you to take some even breaths to calm down. Gene…Gene…"

Gene thought he heard the nurse say something but all he could think about was the fact that he was suffocating.

"10,"

 _Why is the nurse leaving me to die?_

"9,"

 _Why can't I breathe?_

"8,"

Still overwhelmed with the feeling that he couldn't breath, Gene couldn't hear the extra company he had in his room.

"7,"

Gradually, Gene started focusing on the numbers, not shaking as much as he did before.

"6."

His heart stopped feeling like it was going to burst out of his chest.

"5,"

He felt like he could breath again.

"4,"

 _I'm Fine._

"3,"

 _I'm Fine._

"2,"

 _"I'm Fine._

 _"1,"_

By the time the nurse had counted down to 1, Gene was fully aware of his surroundings, his heart not beating erratically, no shivers, no feelings about not being able to breath.

"What just happened?" Luella asked.

"Gene just had a panic attack," replied the nurse.

* * *

Empty once again. Left to be alone like always. Her parents were never home, always on business trips and even if they were home, they would always be on their phones.

Some people would call her lucky because she got everything she wanted, up to the point where one could call her spoiled. At first, she was fine with her parents bribing her with stuff, but it got to a point where she could care less about all worthless material. All she ever wanted now was to spend some quality time with her parents but that wouldn't be happening anytime soon.

It wasn't as bad in the beginning because she would have a babysitter who would take care of her and give her some company but when she turned twelve there was no reason for her to have a babysitter anymore. So for the past four years, she would have the house pretty much to herself. The only times she had company was when the cook would come in to prepare her meals and when her chauffer came to pick or drop her off wherever she needed to go.

No matter how much her parents bribed her, they could not fill the loneliness that Masako felt.

* * *

Closing the door behind him, Yasu sighed. Another late argument at the dinner table left Yasu drained. Taking so many honor and advanced classes, along with his student council responsibilities left him a little drained but he didn't really think it was so bad, instead he found that arguing with his parents left him more stressed out than anything. He could handle the pressure because he loved school and he loved being part of the student council but his parents were making him hate it because it was always about what would look good on a college application. It didn't seem that they cared if he _was truly learning_ or if he actually made a difference in the student council.

He loved his parents but there constant pressure in getting into a good college was starting to wear him out. He couldn't remember the last time he actually did something that wasn't for his parent's sake.

Somewhere between talking about his parents day at work and his day at school, they started arguing about school uniforms. He told them about how his school was considering implementing a new dress code, one that would require a school uniform. Yasu said he disagreed because he thought it was taking the freedom of students to express themselves. His mother and father didn't agree with him because they didn't see anything wrong with wearing a uniform because they wore them when they were in high school in Japan. The conversation took a turn for the worse when Yasu tried to convince them to see his point of view since he never grew up in Japan and he never had to wear a uniform because in all his years in school, uniforms were not required. His parents simply ignored his comment and continued going on about how uniforms were good.

It didn't bother Yasu that his parents didn't agree with him, what bothered him was the fact that they didn't even consider his point of view.

* * *

It was a rare occasion where he had a night off. He was the twin's guardian when Martin and Luella were not around and so he had his own room in the house to always keep watch. On the rare occasions that he had a night or day off, he would spend the night or day at Madoka's and his apartment (technically Madoka's).

Since Luella was going to be home for the next few days, she had granted him two days off of work, so he found himself driving to their apartment.

He came home to a quite apartment, which was unusual because his girlfriend was quite loud when she wanted to. As soon as he entered, he found that Madoka was on the couch, staring at the cellphone in her hands. She didn't even look up at him when she asked him the question he had been hoping to avoid for a long time.

"Are we ever going to get married?"

Lin didn't know what to say. He had been in a serious relationship with Madoka for almost three years; they practically were a married couple. He didn't really see the importance of making it official since they knew they truly loved each other.

Somehow, he felt that his next choices of words would be critical but he didn't know what to say, so he didn't say anything, which was an answer by itself.

* * *

 **~ I'm not always going to delve into others problems too much because it is such a haunting task to do everyone's pov because I wouldn't be able to do it justice but I'd figure I'd give a brief intro to the other characters problems.**


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